DESCRIPTION : (Adapted from that applicant's abstract) Mass spectrometric DNA analysis has a great potential since it eliminates time-consuming stages of DNA reading by traditional methods of gel electophoresis and fluorescent analysis . It is proposed to develop a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) ion trap mass spectrometer (ITMS) for DNA analysis. The presence of fragments is very common in MALDI spectra of biomolecules that makes analysis of even simple DNA mixtures extremely complicated especially when automated systems are considered. In contrast to the time-of-flight (TOF) mass spcetrometer (MS) commonly used with MALDI ion sources, this proposal will improve the yield of the molecular DNA ions in the MALDI process, increase the sensitivity and reliabilility of the method, and allow automation of DNA MS analysis. In Phase I, an ITMS driven at low frequency to operate in the range up to m/z 30,000 will be built and interfaced with MALDI ion source without using strong electric fields for extracting ions. A tunable infrared laser, which showed good results in obtaining mass spectra with minimum fragmentation in the experiments of TOF-MS, will be utilized in the MALDI ion source. In Phase II, an automated system for high throughput DNA analysis will be built using a cooled 2D chip sample array probe. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: NOT AVAILABLE